The cursor on the screen in front of her winked encouragingly. The star-sapphire ring on the third finger of Laura’s left hand was still an unfamiliar weight as she lifted her hands to begin typing. Freddy, her fiancé of just three days, was in the kitchen making the lovely cup of tea with Sunshine, and Carrot lay sleeping at her feet. Laura was finally ready to chase her dream. She had found the perfect story and no one could describe it as being too “quiet.” It was a sweeping story of love and loss, life and death, and, above all, redemption. It was the story of a grand passion that had endured for more than forty years and finally found its happy ending. Smiling, she began to type. She had her perfect opening line . . .
THE KEEPER OF LOST THINGS
Chapter 1
Charles Bramwell Brockley was traveling alone and without a ticket on the 14:42 from London Bridge to Brighton . . .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The fact that I am writing this means that my dream has finally come true and I am now a proper author. It has been a long journey and there have been some strange diversions, frustrating traffic jams, and so many bumps in the road. But here I am. There are so many people who have helped me to get here and if I were to mention all of you it would be a novel in itself, but you know who you are and I thank you all.
My parents are, of course, to blame. They taught me to read before I started school, enrolled me at the children’s library and filled my childhood with books, for which I am eternally grateful.
Thank you to Laura Macdougall, my incredible agent at Tibor Jones, for believing in me and Keeper from the beginning. We first met under the John Betjeman statue at St. Pancras (it was definitely a sign) and within minutes I knew that I wanted to work with you. I thank you for your unstinting support and enthusiasm, your unfailing professionalism and determination, your expert guidance in my initial forays with Twitter and Instagram and your lemon curd.
Thank you Charlotte Maddox at Tibor Jones for all your work with my foreign rights deals and for being such an enthusiastic cheerleader for Keeper, and to the whole team at Tibor Jones—undoubtedly the coolest agency on the planet—for making me feel so much at home with you guys. You rock!
Thank you to Fede Adornino, my editor at Two Roads and founder of Team Sunshine, for taking a risk on Keeper. Your humor, patience, and boundless enthusiasm have made working with you an absolute joy. Yay! Thanks also to the whole team at Two roads, Especially Lisa Highton, Rosie Gailer, and Ross Fraser for welcoming me so warmly and for all your hard work in turning Keeper into a real book. Thank you also to Amber Burlinson for her brilliant copyediting skills and Mimeh Lopategui for her careful proofread.
Thank you to Rachel Kahan at William Morrow, another member of Team Sunshine, for your invaluable editorial input and for the humor with which it was imparted. Thanks to all my foreign publishers for taking Keeper all over the world!
Huge thanks to Ajda Vucicevic. You were there at the start and your faith in me has never faltered.
Peter Budek at the Eagle Bookshop in Bedford has been my friend, mentor, and shoulder to cry on through good times and bad. He has also provided me with endless cups of tea, invaluable advice, and heaps of wonderful research material. Pete, you are a legend! Now finish writing at least one of your books!
Tracey, my mad friend, you died while I was writing Keeper, and I am so sad that you are not here to share this with me, but you inspired me to keep trying when I was sorely tempted to give up.
Thank you to the staff at Bedford and Addenbrookes Hospitals for all your care and kindness, and for making sure that I was still around to finish this book. Special thanks go to the staff at The Primrose Unit for your continued support and interest in my writing.
I should like to thank Paul for putting up with me. Whilst writing Keeper I have filled the house with all the lost things I have found, left bits of paper covered in notes all over the place, and generally allowed my “stuff” to creep into every room. I have locked myself away for hours on end and then emerged grumpy and demanding dinner. And yet, you’re still here!
Finally, I should like to thank my wonderful dogs. They have had to put up with “We’ll go for walk as soon as I’ve vanished this chapter” far too many times. Billy and Tilly both died while I was working on Keeper and I miss them every day, but Timothy Bear and Duke are asleep on the sofa as I write this. Snoring.